Reprinted
from The Zimbabwean at Kalanga.Org
Dr
Enocent Msindo, you were born in Zimbabwe, got your PhD at Cambridge and are
now a Senior Lecturer in African History at Rhodes University, South Africa.
What drew you to history in the first place?
My
interest in History began over two decades ago when I was a Secondary school
student, precisely in form two when a very engaging teacher taught us in our
first term about the transition from feudalism to capitalism (that old piece of
World History!) and the ensuing class struggles.
When
I got to the university, (during that time in Zimbabwe, the University of
Zimbabwe was THE university and all other ones that were emerging were not yet
taken serious) I took up History, Archaeology and Philosophy. My interest in
History was very evident in that even as I was doing my first degree, I started
visiting the National Archives of Zimbabwe where I often mixed with more
established researchers from across the globe. While studying I met the most
famous scholar whom I read avidly at high school, Terence Ranger, who taught me
for two years. At Cambridge University I was fortunate to be part of the
inaugural stream of the Gates Scholarship. I graduated first with an MPhil in
Historical Studies and then did a PhD in History.
What
led you to the subject of your book?
When
I started my research, Violence and Memory, a book about Matabeleland by
Alexander, McGregor and Ranger had just been published by James Currey. I found
this, like most works on the region, to be a history of the Ndebele, and
Matabeleland, as perceived from the supposedly majoritarian Ndebele. It did not
highlight alternative histories of the rest of the people of Matabeleland.
I
then thought of finding out how those depicted as minorities and often silenced
in both the government and history books perceived themselves as a people over
a long period of time in which they were subjected not only to Ndebele
hegemonic social and political processes but also to successive repressive
colonial and post-colonial political regimes.
In
this light, I thought my story would not make sense if I studied the Kalanga
alone rather than comparatively with the Ndebele so as to unearth the different
social and political processes that have shaped both ethnic identities and also
a new composite identity that later developed – Matabeleland regional identity.
I
deliberately chose the Kalanga because they claim relationship with earlier
Rozvi or even the Torwa political cultures, and this makes them claimants to
being ‘the originals’ of the land, when comparing themselves to the Ndebele who
came later.
Secondly,
Kalanga had a network of relations not only within the country, but beyond,
with trade relations with the Tswana – and such relations informed their
ethnicity and also their dealings with the Ndebele. Third, Kalanga are arguably
the largest ethnic group in Matabeleland, barring those claiming Ndebele
ethnicity, and were the first ones to encounter both invading teams of the
Ndebele when they came to the plateau.
How
has ethnic identity been shaped?
Because
of the events of the 1960s,specifically the rise of African nationalism; the
split in the leadership of the nationalist movement; and ensuing factionalism
that characterised the rest of the 1970s, then the violence meted on
Matabeleland people by the government in the 1980s, Matabeleland has grown more
and more into a complex regional entity. This regional identity also thrives on
contemporary politics whereby those aspiring to political office build
political profiles and raise political parties by taking advantage of the
already existing popular anger that is in most of the people in Matabeleland.
However,
Ndebele ethnic identity thrives specifically on Ndebele material culture;
Ndebele theatre performances; music and dance, which are more often than not,
commercialised. It also thrives on the fact that there are still remnants of
the Khumalo Clan (abeSikhosini/the royalty), and some ‘organic’ Ndebele
chieftaincies who are still accorded some measure of respect by Ndebele people.
There is also an annual ceremony to commemorate what is called King Mzilikazi
Day, in honour of the first Ndebele king, Mzilikazi Khumal.
A
prominent theme of the book is that ethnic identities were already well
established by the time colonial rule was imposed. In what way, if any, did
colonial rule subsequently shape these identities?
The
argument about pre-colonial ethnic consciousness came in the wake of my efforts
to freshen up scholarship around the creation of identities.
Established
scholarship, especially in Southern Africa has emphasised that pre-colonial
Africans did not have ethnic groups and did not live as such. I demonstrate
that the chief problem lies in the ways scholars reacted to colonialism and
also to the ways scholars have defined ethnicity, which has often been mistaken
for (political) tribalism. Secondly, dominant scholarship on pre-colonial
Africa has focussed more on political identities and forgotten to examine the
social (or socio-political) aspects of African societies, which includes
ethnicity.
In
this book, I do not dispute the manipulative machinations of colonialism and
that it shaped the ways people perceived themselves. However, my argument is
that although colonialism created certain conditions that favoured the creation
of some identities and modes of behaviour, they (colonisers) were not operating
in a vacuum, and colonialism’s creative power has been exaggerated. The
innovations and negotiations that were happening in the internal African
societies have often been ignored or assumed to have been driven by colonial
agents, missionaries and the African elites. This assumption misses the point.
The
colonial authorities tried in many ways to dictate the way Africans thought
about a number of things: the imposition of Ndebele chiefs upon Kalanga
communities; the imposition of unpopular chiefs among the Ndebele; the looting
of Ndebele state cattle and how these were ill-distributed, which created
tensions; the imposition of isiNdebele in Kalanga communities; their attempt to
legislate in marital traditions through what they called customary law and so
on. I wanted to explore how these communities came up with ideas and identities
that hugely undermined the colonial projects.
And
what is your next step?
For
the next few years, I will concentrate on examining the evolution of colonial
and post-colonial information policy and propaganda in Zimbabwe from as early
as the 1930s. This is a project for another book to be completed in the next
few years. The project comes in the wake of growing concerns about press
freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe. A historian is required in this field that
has been dominated by journalists!
Ethnicity
in Zimbabwe: Transformations in Kalanga and Ndebele Societies, 1860-1990
By
Enocent Msindo, Published
by University of Rochester Press
